Macbeth

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Macbeth
Jon Finch and Francesca Annis in The Tragedy of
Macbeth by Roman Polanski, 1971
LADY MACBETH MACBETH
LADY MACBETH
FEATURES of A TRAGIC HERO
ACT II scene 2 ACT V scene1 ACT V scene 5
DRAMATIC STRUCTURE
THEMES
MACBETH
SYMBOLS
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LADY MACBETH MACBETH -Parable of the tragic
hero.
LADYMACBETH
GOES UP
GOES DOWN
MACBETH
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1. Main characteristics

• The shortest of Shakespeares tragedies, simple
  and direct in its plot
• Complex psychological analysis of what takes
  place in the mind of the criminal.
• There is no villain pitted against the hero but
  its Macbeth himself who starts as a heroic
  character and ends up as a murderous tyrant as a
  result of his ambition and thirst for power

James Heath, I have done the deed, 1888. Kansas
City, Carbonell-Weinglass Collection
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THE VILLAIN

• THE VILLAIN

ONE TYPE OF VILLAIN They do not have any doubts They consider the morality of the world a lot of foolishness They consider themselves to be superior They take pleasure in evil They are very strong characters They are all evil , they dont have another side ( one-sided character) At the end we always have the downfall of evil characters. ANOTHER TYPE OF VILLAIN They are psychologically much more complex (many-sided character) They are conscience-stricken ( they suffer fom a sense of guilt) They behave in a way which is out of character ( they are different from how they behave) They make the wrong choice They destroy themselves by committing acts contrary to their own nature(self-destroying character).
James Heath, I have done the deed, 1888. Kansas
City, Carbonell-Weinglass Collection
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MACBETH

• Macbeth begins as a brave , capable warrior?
  battlefield valour but, led by consuming
  ambition, urged into action by his wife, he
  chooses evil and becomes a murderous tyrant.
• Terrible effects that ambition and guilt can have
  on a man who lacks strength of characterhe is
  unable of standing the psychic consequences of
  crime and lacks moral courage
• In the end he becomes cruel and unscrupulous.

Parable of the tragic hero.
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MACBETH

• After the murder, however, Lady Macbeths
  powerful personality begins to disintegrate,
  leaving Macbeth increasingly alone, he
  fluctuates between moments of pure cruelty with
  a series of murders to secure his throne,
  moments of terrible guilt (as when Banquos ghost
  appears because the ghost of BANQUO symbolizes
  Macbeth's conscience) and absolute pessimism
  (after his wifes death, when he seems to succumb
  to despair).

Parable of the tragic hero.
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THEMES

• The Corrupting Power of Unchecked Ambition.
• The Relationship Between Cruelty and Masculinity.
• Reversal of valuesFair is foul, and foul is
  fair , represents the most dangerous aspect of
  equivocation and the one of false
  appearance( what is true and what seems to be
  true.(the Three Witches)
• The supernatural

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LADY MACBETH
Parable of the tragic hero.

• Lady Macbeth she is stronger, more ruthless,
  and more ambitious than her husband , she
  suppresses her natural instinct to plan the
  murder and pushes him into committing
  murder.
• She has a streak of masculinity in her character
• Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by
  overriding all his objections and when he
  hesitates to murder, she repeatedly questions his
  manhood .
• Afterward, however, she begins a slow slide into
  madnessjust as ambition affects her more
  strongly than Macbeth before the crime, so does
  guilt plague her more strongly afterward.
• She suppresses her guilty feelings toa point
  she cannot bear and in the end she explodes and
  goes mad.
• By the close of the play, she has been reduced
  to sleepwalking through the castle, desperately
  trying to wash away an invisible bloodstain.

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Dramatic structureSymmmetrical development
Symmetrical development
Climax
Rising action
Falling action
Conclusion
Introduction
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2. Dramatic structure
Introduction
The first two scenes the appearance of the three
witches and the news of Macbeths bravery in
battle.
The three Witches in Macbeth by John Barnes,
1964
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2. Dramatic structure
Rising action
Macbeth meets the three witches their prophecy
begins to work on his ambition. He kills Duncan.
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Dramatic structure
Climax
Banquos murder (Act III, Scene 3)
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Dramatic structure
Falling action
Fleances escape the banquet scene
arousing of Macduff Macbeth retreats to
Dunsinane Castle
Thèodore Chassèriau (1819-1856), Macbeth seeing
the ghost of Banquo, 1854. Musée des Beaux-Arts,
Reims
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Dramatic structure
Conclusion
Final fall and death of Lady Macbeth and Macbeth
Henry Fuseli, Lady Macbeth sleepwalking, 1798,
Musée du Louvre
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Features of a tragic hero

1. Nobility of birth or wisdom.
2. A flaw, either a mistake in the characters
   actions or in his personality that leads to a
   downfall.
3. A reversal of fortune caused by his flaw.
4. The realisation that the reversal was brought
   about by the heros own actions.
5. The audience has to feel pity and fear
   (catharsis) for the character.

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THE SUPERNATURAL-THE WITCHES

• The Three Witches and their prophecies , which
  fire Macbeths ambition
• They represent Fate but also are symbolical
  representation of Macbeths unconscious guilt
  they wake up a temptation which was already
  slumbering in Macbeths breast
• They are called instruments of darkness
  ,implying that they stand for the power of evil,
  but its the darkness which is inside the human
  heart.

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THE SUPERNATURAL-THE CHAOS of NATURE

• The chaos of nature on the night of Duncans
  murder.
• According to the Elisabethans there was a
  correspondence between the order of the macrocosm
  ( nature and universe) and the order in the
  state the king ( the ruler of the state ) is
  paralleled to the sun ( the ruler of the
  macrocosm).Regicide is a tremendous hideous act
  which brings about chaos in the state and
  darkness , which is metaphor of tyrannical
  power
• Chaos is synonym of sin and evil, because the
  universe created by God is ruled by ORDER and
  CHAOS
• Mans position in the universe is central in the
  universe as his double nature , body and soul,
  represents the eternal battle between PASSIONS
  and REASON, a constant opposition between the
  bestial and the rational when a man succumbs to
  passions he becomes a beast, a creature which
  occupies a lower rank in the hierarchy of
  universe chaos in the microcosm ( stormy
  passions in man) are paralleled to stormy weather
  in the universe ( macrocosm)

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SYMBOLS

• Blood
• Blood is everywhere in Macbeth, beginning with
  the opening battle between the Scots and the
  Norwegian invaders What bloody man is that ?
  (ACT I scene 2) Once Macbeth and Lady Macbeth
  embark upon their murderous journey, blood comes
  to symbolize their guilt, and they begin to feel
  that their crimes have stained them in a way that
  cannot be washed clean. Blood symbolizes the
  guilt that sits like a permanent stain on the
  consciences of both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth, one
  that hounds them to their graves.
• The Weather
• As in other Shakespearean tragedies, Macbeths
  grotesque murder spree is accompanied by a number
  of unnatural occurrences in the natural realm.
  From the thunder and lightning that accompany the
  witches appearances to the terrible storms that
  rage on the night of Duncans murder, these
  violations of the natural order reflect
  corruption in the moral and political orders.

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RELANTIONSHIP BETWEEN CRUELTY MASCULINITY

• Characters in Macbeth frequently discuss on
  issues of gender.
• Lady Macbeth manipulates her husband by
  questioning his manhood, wishes that she herself
  could be unsexed, and does not contradict
  Macbeth when he says that a woman like her should
  give birth only to boys.
• Both Macbeth and Lady Macbeth equate masculinity
  with naked aggression, and whenever they converse
  about manhood, violence soon follows.
• Women are also sources of violence and evil.
• The witches prophecies spark Macbeths
  ambitions and then encourage his violent
  behavior
• Lady Macbeth provides the brains and the will
  behind her husbands plotting
• and the only divine being to appear is Hecate,
  the goddess of witchcraft.
• Lady Macbeths behavior certainly shows that
  women can be as ambitious and cruel as men.
  However , she is not fearless enough to kill,
  Lady Macbeth relies on deception and manipulation
  rather than violence to achieve her ends.

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ACT II scene 2 ACT V scene 1 ACT V scene 5

• ACT II scene 2 A moral hysteria follows the
  murder. The disjointed language suggests both
  guilt and terror. The owl , as the bird of death
  is compared to the bellman snt to give goodnight
  to condemned prisoners the night before their
  execution.
• ACT V scene 1 This scene re-enacts the life of
  bloodshed in terms of dream and hallucination .
  It is the climax of Shakespeares exploration of
  individual psychological secrets . The broken
  prose fragments of Lady Macbeths speech reflect
  the collapse of the human mind under inhuman
  pressures
• ACT V scene 5 Macbeths reaction to Lady
  Macbeths death is determined by the supreme
  horror of the heart anesthetised by despair.
  From this time on Macbeths life is just a
  waiting for the end. The future has become
  meaningless